Valley Yarns Simple Shawl Knitting Pattern

Valley Yarns Simple Shawl

What is Being Made

The Valley Yarns Simple Shawl is a versatile triangular shawl designed by Kirsten Hipsky. This knitted wrap measures 24 inches tall by 48 inches wide in its finished size, though crafters can adjust dimensions to their preference. The shawl functions as both a finished garment and a customizable canvas for personal stitch pattern experimentation.

Knitting Techniques

This shawl employs several key knitting techniques that make it suitable for advanced beginners:

• Top-down construction: The shawl is knit from the neck downward, beginning with a small cast-on and expanding through strategic increases
• Seamless knitting: The entire piece is worked as one continuous fabric without seams, creating a unified garment
• Worked flat: Despite being seamless, the shawl is knit flat on straight needles rather than in the round, simplifying the construction process
• Lace elements: A decorative lace edging is knit separately and attached to the main body, featuring yarn overs and decreases that create an openwork border with individual points for elegant blocking

Stitches and Stitch Patterns

The Simple Shawl primarily uses garter stitch for the main body, which is created by knitting every row. This fundamental stitch provides a textured, reversible fabric that is forgiving for newer knitters. The main body incorporates yarn overs (yo) for shaping increases, with four stitches increased every right-side row. The attached edging introduces more complex lace work, utilizing yarn overs, knit-two-togethers (k2tog), and purl stitches to create an ornamental border. The edging pattern repeats over four rows and is designed to join to the main shawl body at a 3-to-1 ratio, meaning three stitches of the edging correspond to each stitch of the main body.

Materials and Specifications

The pattern calls for Valley Yarns Huntington yarn, a superwash merino wool blend composed of 75% Superwash Merino Wool and 25% Nylon. Two 50-gram skeins are required, each providing 218 yards of yardage for a total of 436 yards. The recommended color is 033 Red Purple. Knitting needles should be US size 6 (4.00 mm) or adjusted as needed to achieve the correct gauge. One stitch marker is required to track the center point of the shawl during construction. The gauge is approximately 5.5 stitches per inch when measured in garter stitch.

Construction Notes

The shawl begins with a small foundation of 7 cast-on stitches divided by a stitch marker. Crafters work alternating knit rows and increase rows, with the increase rows adding four stitches total. The pattern provides a helpful calculation: after any right-side row, the stitch count should equal the row number multiplied by two, plus seven. For example, after row 20, there should be 47 stitches. The main body is worked until it reaches approximately 20 inches in length, or about 4 inches shorter than the desired final length. The decorative edging is then cast on and worked separately, being knit onto the shawl edge as it progresses to avoid a tight bind-off edge and to create individual points for blocking. Alternatively, crafters may bind off the shawl once it reaches desired length if they prefer straight edges rather than a pointed edging.

Finishing and Blocking

The shawl is finished through wet blocking, which allows crafters to shape the garment to their specifications. The piece is pinned while wet to the desired measurements, with each point of the edging pinned individually to create elegant definition. This blocking technique ensures the lace edging displays properly and the overall shawl achieves its intended drape and dimensions.